Ryan Crookham: The Lehigh Valley kid

Ryan Crookham is a Lehigh Valley kid.

Technically, he was born just outside of Philadelphia and didn’t move to the Lehigh Valley until sixth grade.  

But long before the move, Crookham and his family would make the drive to Grace Hall to watch All-American Mountain Hawk wrestlers like Darian Cruz and Robert Hamlin go to work.

Crookham grew up in a wrestling family and hit the mat at 4 years old. 

He qualified for his first state tournament at age 7, after which his dad asked if he wanted to start taking wrestling seriously. 

Crookham’s dad coached him for years since he owned his own business and had the flexibility to stay home and train Crookham. 

Crookham took his dad up on his offer and started training more intensely.

Within less than a year of making that commitment, Crookham became a state champion in Pennsylvania and then went undefeated to win his division at a national tournament as an 8-year-old.  

“I don’t really know how my dad got me to focus a lot of the time because I was still just 8 years old,” Crookham said. “But he would always find little tricks like, ‘If you wrestle in or win this tournament, I’ll buy you Legos or Pokémon cards.’”

Winning another tournament alone wasn’t always enough to secure those Lego sets and Pokémon cards, though Crookham’s dad often made him enter the tournament at a higher weight class or in an older age division. 

Even when Crookham took first place in tournaments, his dad was always seeking more time for him on the mat. 

“I would win the tournament at a higher age division or higher weight class, and (my dad) would have me walk up to whoever the best wrestler was at the tournament… and ask him for an exhibition,” Crookham said.

His wrestling success inspired his family’s move to the Lehigh Valley — a place considered by many as one of the greatest and most challenging environments in America for young wrestlers.

Two years later, Crookham became the first eighth grader ever to win the Super 32 Tournament at the high school division. This helped to establish him in the Lehigh Valley as a top competitor, capable of beating older, more experienced wrestlers. 

“In high school, (Crookham) was a very, very big name,” said sophmore teammate and fellow All-American Luke Stanich. “I looked up to this kid in Roxbury who was always ranked top five in the country, and Crook was always the guy to beat him.” 

It’s not uncommon for Crookham’s reputation to precede him in the minds of his coaches and teammates.

Even Lehigh coach Pat Santoro, who was born and raised in the Lehigh Valley, knew about the legend of Ryan Crookham years before meeting him.

With a reputation of such dominance and promise from an early age, it would be easy for someone to expect Crookham to want to wrestle for a national powerhouse like Penn State. 

The Nittany Lions are currently first all-time in NCAA team championship titles with 12 and first in individual NCAA national champions with 55. They have also won the last three consecutive NCAA national championship titles.

And yet, going into his junior year of high school, Crookham committed to Lehigh, a school he referred to as “the perfect fit.” 

The No. 2 pound-for-pound high school wrestler in the country committing to the smaller — and arguably less-storied — wrestling program in the Lehigh Valley might have come as a shock to some. 

But Crookham’s college commitment was about more than the wrestling program he would represent. 

When Crookham, now a red shirt sophmore, was younger, he and his father spent a lot of time traveling across the country together, wrestling at the best tournaments and clubs they could find. 

Crookham’s dad worked to develop his son into one of the most dominant wrestlers in the country, but he also took advantage of the time they spent together to impart the importance of a fulfilling life outside of wrestling. 

“In the car we talked about life, we talked about the future, we talked about orienting ourselves along this path,” Crookham said. “Now these are the things that I focus on and that orient my life.” 

Crookham said the talks with his dad about his future major or profession sometimes went over his head when he was a child, but over the years he’s recognized how important these foundational principles are to his success.

From an early age, Crookham was determined not to be defined by his performance on the mat, but instead to actively pursue the rich professional, social and spiritual lives that he and his father so often talked about. 

Anyone who knows Crookham knows he’s a competitor in anything that he does, so he sought out Lehigh because he felt it allowed him to pursue all of his goals at a high level. 

As far as Crookham’s professional goals, pursuing a degree in financial engineering, and enrolled in both business and engineering.

He said his hope is to one day own a business and to be financially stable enough to stay home and coach his son just as his father did for him.

Crookham’s image of success is one that involves his teammates, peers and the Lehigh Valley at large. 

He signed a handful of NIL deals — which document student athlete’s rights for publicity — this year, and in true Crookham fashion, many of the deals are with cornerstone Lehigh Valley businesses like Hotel Bethlehem and the St. Lukes Health Network. 

With the St. Lukes Crookham and some of his teammates hosted 12 wrestling camps at local high schools over the summer to meet and practice with some of the young wrestlers. 

He said he wanted to sign NIL deals that make an impact on his own community.

Crookham’s hopes his success coincides with his community’s needs is also reflected in his leadership on the wrestling team.

Santoro said Crookham’s high expectations extend to his teammates, which creates a competitive environment that benefits everyone.

“He wants to be a national champion, but he doesn’t want to do it alone,” Santoro said. “He wants the Luke Stanichs and the Michael Beards and the Nathan Taylors to win it with him.” 

Crookham’s goal to bring Lehigh a national team championship has been something he’s made clear since his commitment, but his positive influence doesn’t stop after the whistle blows. 

“It’s not just about what you do in the practice room,” Stanich said. “It’s pretty much how you live your life. That’s what separates the good wrestlers from the elite. Crookham does everything right.” 

The expectations that come with being the guy who “does everything right” put a lot of pressure on Crookham, as does the fact that he took third place at NCAAs last year as a redshirt first-year. 

Crookham, who would be the first to tell you he’s still human and makes mistakes, looks to God to give him perspective and to keep him oriented in the face of pressure.

“Reading scripture and thinking about eternity, the magnitude of that and what Jesus did for me… it puts wrestling into perspective, and puts sports and life into perspective,” Crookham said. 

Part of Crookham’s platform is disillusioning athletes to the fallacy that fulfillment comes from athletic success. It’s something he said is underrepresented in the wrestling community but holds true even at the highest levels.

“Even Olympians go through depressive periods after the Olympics,” Crookham said. “It’s pretty prevalent, and it’s kind of heartbreaking to see.”

Talking about his faith in non-wrestling settings is not always easy for Crookham, but he’s found that a lot of informative and reaffirming conversations have come from sharing Bible verses with his teammates and classmates.

Crookham chose 1 Corinthians 10:31 to describe the role of God in his life: “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it for the glory of God.”

“What that means to me is whether I’m wrestling, or I’m studying for a test, or I’m spending time with family or just walking along the street, I want to do that to a certain standard where I keep God in the forefront of my mind,” Crookham said. 

With two more years of NCAA eligibility and possibly a master’s degree in his future, Crookham has time to make an even bigger impact than he already has.

Stanich said he sees two NCAA titles in Crookham’s future and he has the potential to one day be “one of Lehigh’s all-time greats.” 

But as far as Crookham is concerned, he’s perfectly fine just being a Lehigh Valley kid.